Patients with weakened immune systems are at highest risk for life-threatening opportunistic fungal infections. There are a limited number of antifungal drugs currently available to treat these patients. Drug resistance and toxicity now threatens to shorten the usefulness of these drugs. In phaseI of this project we will create and validate an in vivo assay for the identification of novel antifungal drug targets. The assay will provide a means to monitor the effect of compounds on the function of the drug targets. The assay will be exploited in Phase II to identify candidate compounds that inhibit the function of the drug target. The candidate drugs will be further tested in clinical trials then commercialized. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The in vivo assay developed in thie project will be used in Phase II to identify candidate antifungal drugs. These drugs will be commercialized following sucessful clinical trials to demonstrate their safety and efficacy.